The French had the list too, and their then Finance Minister Christine Lagarde gave her counterpart in Athens the names of 2,000 or so Greek citizens with Swiss accounts.

A grateful Greek Government would now be able to move against some of its richest citizens and recoup some desperately needed tax revenues, while frightening many more into paying up as well. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, what did the Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos do with this treasure trove of information? He put the memory stick he’d been given in a draw in his desk, and forgot about it. Tragically, this is not a joke.

This week, when questions were asked about why no revenue had been recovered from the 2,000 Swiss accounts, officials said that the information they had been given 2 years earlier had been lost.

Venizelos, who has since assumed the leadership of his party PASOK, then rather sheepishly admitted it hadn’t actually been lost, just ignored. It was not, though, his fault. Of course not.

Evangelos Venizelos Credit: REUTERS/Yiorgos Karahalis

A year ago Christine Lagarde, by then head of the IMF, publicly accused the Greeks of having been the authors of their own downfall by tolerating widespread tax evasion.

She was lambasted for her comments by...you guessed it, Evangelos Venizelos. “Mrs Lagarde has insulted and humiliated the Greek people”, he said, a view widely endorsed by most of the Greek establishment.

The Greeks complain that few in Europe seem to want to help them in their hour of need.

They may have a point, but maybe if they tried a little harder to help themselves?